Manage Transportation Rates with Trax Rate Manager
A key purpose of the right transportation management system is accurate and efficient rate management. Shippers and carriers must continuously collaborate to develop their contracts and rate agreements, which can be time-consuming and tedious without the right software in place.
We’re covering how Trax Rate Manager streamlines the processing of managing contracts and spot rates.
About Trax Rate Manager
Trax launched its Rate Manager solution on April 3, 2019. Rate Manager is part of Trax’s complete freight data management product suite. The goal of the product is to achieve the following outcomes:
- Create a centralized system for rate procurement, freight audit, rate maintenance, and spot quote management.
- Ensure compliance and visibility across all lanes, carriers, and regions.
The Rate Manager goals connect nicely with the Trax transportation management maturity model. For example, companies can use Rate Manager to track contracts and provide an audit trail for all rate submissions and approvals to move from a reactive to a proactive data management strategy.
Rather than catching mistakes after they’ve had a negative impact on a contract, enterprises can track their data in real-time and address issues as they arise. For instance, the Rate Manager provides visibility into all expiring rates and enterprise compliance concerns.
Who is Trax Rate Manager For?
Whether a company is just starting its journey toward transportation management maturity, or is already optimizing and leading the market, it will benefit from using Trax’s Rate Manager.
Rate Manager for Global Carriers
Providing instant freight quotes is important for global carriers to scale their business and keep things running efficiently. The Rate Manager standardizes the process of curating transportation rates to accommodate customers throughout their relationship. The Trax Rate Manager offers pre-built templates for all transportation modes (parcel and all non-parcel modes) and all regions globally.
Rate Management for Shippers
Not only does a solid rate management system benefit global carriers, but shippers also experience the benefits of the Trax Rate Manager–specifically when it comes to transparency. Shippers will appreciate that the Rate Manager ensures little to no delay in freight quotes and discloses all charges for a contract.
How Does Rate Manager by Trax Work?
Rate Manager by Trax is a sophisticated rate management system (RMS) that complements the entire transportation spend management software suite. To achieve visibility, efficiency, and accuracy, the Rate Manager addresses the following:
Query Existing Contract Rates
The first step to streamlining data is to upgrade from paper-based deals to a digital format. The Rate Manager by Trax is a cloud-based solution for digitally capturing and managing all transportation contracts and rates between shippers, carriers, and LSPs.
Once the data is centralized, Rate Manager makes it easy to access and query existing contract rates. With the user-friendly interface, clients can filter their Rate Manager dashboard by carrier, mode, submission type, region, submitter, and approver. They can also quickly scan the homepage for rates awaiting review and expired/expiring rates to navigate to specific contracts of interest.
This is particularly important when it comes to freight invoices because there is typically a high error rate when managing these manually. Rate Manager provides a single source of truth to compare invoices to for auditing purposes.
Real-Time Alerts
It’s not enough to be able to query all contracts, which is why the Trax Rate Manager offers real-time alerts for contracts that are expiring or expired, as well as those needing approval. In addition, the easy-to-use dashboard allows shippers and carriers to toggle between rates and contracts for instant alerts which require action.
The dashboard also provides visual representations of the data. For example, after noting an alert for expiring contracts, it’s possible to filter those contracts and view trends, such as average days from submission to review.
Standardized Rate Templates
Rate confirmation documents are important for the shipper and carrier to manage the details of their contract. The following standard information is typically included in a rate confirmation:
- Shipper name
- Carrier name
- Origin and destination of shipment
- Type of shipment
- Shipping date
- Total cost of shipment
Having a standardized template for rate formats is crucial for data validation. To simplify creating these documents, the Trax Rate Manager solution has a library with 50 pre-built templates covering all modes and regions.
Harmonize Complex Data
When data comes from seemingly disparate sources, it’s necessary to make sense of it once it is centralized. Unfortunately, this can be a daunting task for supply chain leaders and analysts without advanced software and an easy-to-use interface.
Rate Manager by Trax addresses this issue and more by providing intuitive graphical representations of all data and offering APIs and configurable data fields for easy customization.
For those looking to dive deeper into the data, Rate Manager also combines rates and invoice data with cost modeling and simulation capabilities.
Get Rate Manager by Trax?
When choosing the appropriate logistics provider, understanding the rate management offerings can make a difference in the final decision to form a partnership. When a company chooses to partner with Trax, it gains access to the entire freight data management product suite, including freight audit, match manager, data compliance manager, TraxPays, and Rate Manager.
Contact Trax today to learn how your company can accelerate its growth toward transportation management maturity.